A Summer In Vichy, France (journal entry)
Updated: 2 days ago
The Making of an Exhibition in Vichy
Journal entry by John Byrne
Several years ago, I received a call from Fany Dupechez (Artistic Director) and Pascal Michaut (General Manager) of the Portrait(s) Festival in Vichy, France. They invited David to be the featured artist of the 14th edition of the festival for the summer of 2026.
It had been quite a while since David had shown in France outside of Paris. In fact, it has been almost 30 years, when he presented his solo exhibition "LaChapelle Land" at the Les Rencontres d'Arles photography festival in Arles, France during the summer of 1998.
So all these years later, we were excited about the idea of doing something in another part of Southern France.
Vichy has a somewhat of a dramatic history. For many people, both inside and outside of France, Vichy recalls the events World War II. From 1940 to 1944, Vichy was the seat of the French government under Marshal Pétain, which collaborated with Nazi Germany.
However, I have learned that this association was really limited to a faction of the government and politicians in this region which held immense power...
Every region has its past, and Vichy is so much more than those four years.
Our mission has always been to bring David's narratives and storytelling to audiences around the world - wherever we can - and so there is really no place that I think of art being a problematic place to exist; it was an honor to accept the invitation and create a cultural exchange with this beautiful town which is so rich in culture.
The Portrait(s) Festival is a uniquely important festival because all of the exhibitions are free to the public. Vichy Culture and the City of Vichy support the festival - which has an impressive amount of productions, concerts and events throughout the year.
Poster for Portrait(s) Festival XIV in the city center of Vichy, interior of historic
Grand Établissement Thermal, the site for our summer exhibition, greenery around town.
Vichy is an incredibly beautiful and impeccably maintained town. It is one of Europe’s historic spa towns and part of UNESCO’s Great Spa Towns of Europe. The thermal waters have been famous for centuries, and Napoleon III was very important to the development of the city in the 19th century.
There are vibrant parks and gardens, huge trees, the riverwalk, boathouses, marinas, restaurants and, of course, all of the thermal spas.
Visiting Baden-Baden, Germany, in 2023 for a visit with David to the Mercedes-Maybach factory in nearby Stuttgart (no photos allowed!). We had the pleasure of staying at the Brenners Park-Hotel. Baden-Baden is the sister city of Vichy, France, and is also famous for its spas.
Vichy is also the sister city of Baden-Baden in Germany, which I thought was interesting because we had visited Baden-Baden several years earlier in 2023 when we toured the Mercedes-Benz and Maybach factories. Both cities have the feeling of being in a Grimms Fairy Tale.
David LaChapelle, Surreal Scape, 2024
One of three commissioned photographs for Maybach by David Lachapelle resulting from our visit to the Mercedes Maybach factories in Stuttgart, Germany.
The First Visit
Rewinding a bit - last summer I traveled to Paris took the train down to Vichy to meet Fany, Pascal, Pascal and Karim to see the exhibition site (our exhibitions usually take anywhere from 6 months to 3 years to plan). I took a direct train, which was about a three-hours south of Paris. Pascal picked me up at the station.
The first place we visited was Vichy Opera House. The mayor’s office arranged for us to go inside. It is one of the most beautiful rooms I have ever seen. I keep trying to figure out how to describe the color. The opera house, its ceiling and sea of theater chairs is both green and gold, but it isn’t exactly green and it isn't exactly gold. It has almost this oxidized greenish gold. The whole theater is like a jewel box.
Details of the Opéra de Vichy.
The acoustics are perfect for music. I remember thinking that I would really love to come back someday and actually see an opera there.
Site visit to see the empty space of Grand Établissement Thermal in preparation for the exhibition.
I spent time the cold winter day walking around with festival staff Fany, Pascal and Karim Boulhaya along with Martin Kubich, the Director of Vichy Culture. They brought me to see the Grand Établissement Thermal, where they were proposing to have David’s exhibition.
As soon as we entered the space, I knew it was the perfect setting for David's work.
It was enormous and open and strange and beautiful. It was this incredible historic building, purchased recently by the town of Vichy from the national government in an effort to restore it and bring it back to life. It is anchored by a central fountain on the ground floor - a symbol of the building's original purpose - a grand public spa...
Drawing of the original Grand Établissement Thermal from the early 1900s.
The building was built between 1899 and 1903.
© Fonds patrimoniaux de Vichy / Vichy con Amour
The Planning
David supervises the printing and framing of each work. He cares about where they go, how they relate to each other in the space, and how they are lit.
For about the next year, our team planned everything through Zoom meetings with the festival team...designers, registrars, administrators and everybody involved in actually putting together an exhibition.
Fany has a brilliant mind and very clear vision and she proposed a curation and layout for the exhibition that was exciting and unexpected. It is wonderful to see how curators choose to use the work to create and experience and her ideas really brought both the space and the depth of the work to life.
Pascal, the festival manager is also a brilliant mind - with a background in the military, he is both creative and exact. And Karim, is just an artist's dream. He proposed so many logistical solutions and executed a dynamic and vast build out in the space where each artwork could breath and also have the best lighting.
These historic spaces are not easy to work in because they are fragile and protected so every element from lighting to walls has to be brought in to the space and support a large body of work. They were excellent partners in this process.
There are so many things involved in planning these projects... Measurements, floor plans, shipping, insurance, lighting, installation, press releases, marketing, text, scheduling, documentation and more. It is an complex and rewarding enterprise.
Scale model of the Thermal Spa, made in our Miami office.
In preparation for curation, we always create a scale model of the exhibition space..
I love making scale models. David thinks in analog, in the same way he has worked since 1984. He makes things with his hands and does not touch a computer anywhere in the process. I make the scale models in my office in Miami, usually at a 1:55 or 1:68.75 scale. I use dto create 1:50 scale when I worked in our large office in New York, but since I have a smaller office in Miami, the scale models have become smaller. We love a scale model. You can "walk around" it. You can look through it. We put the scale photographs on the little walls - all in perfect scale, and with the correct frame colors and installation specs.
It is also practical and necessary to plan this was because we are shipping these huge photographs internationally. We want to know that they actually fit before we send them halfway around the world.
As the curation evolved with the selection of works by Fany with David, we revised the model. Over the years, I have kept these little models. When I look back at them, I can see the exhibitions changing. I can see the new work coming in, the scale changing and how our relationships with different curators has taken a new path along with the path of David's vision.
David is extremely connected to his work. It is almost like his children. He has done something like 5,000 photo shoots over his career, so it is almost like having 5,000 children.
He remembers each image.
David supervises the printing and framing of each work. He cares about where they go, how they relate to each other in the space, and how they are lit.
He lives, eats and breathes photography.
David is always working.
And if he’s not working, he’s working.
He calls me almost every morning. He is either thinking about the last series he made, planning the next one or waiting for the inspiration for whatever comes next.
He is a producer. He needs to make things.
I was thinking about Dolly Parton recently and how many songs she has written and how protective she has been of her work. There is that famous story about she declined to let Elvis sing I Will Always Love You because she really believed in the song and didn't want to give away the chance to record it and give away the publishing rights.
There is something about people who just keep producing.
I remember reading Twyla Tharp’s autobiography and how she talked about religousely doing ballet warmups every morning even into her 60's and 70's .
Dolly never really retired.
My father never retired.
And David will never retire.
I admire this thing that he has which continues to motivate him to produce - even when he thinks he has said all he needs to say through photography, he will get inspired and suddenly the studio comes alive as we endeavor to achieve the next challenge. We cannot do this alone though, and we are very fortunate to have great galleries, collectors, museums and even book publishers that give the work places to live.
The Wonderful World of Vichy
Women were walking around in huge hoop skirts with parasols. Men were wearing military uniforms and suits with tails. It was like stepping back in time...
In June, it was time to go back to Vichy for the installation and opening.
Another part of my job is dealing with all of the logistics... flights, transfers, hotels and mapping out how each part of our team will travel seamlessly door-to-door across these complex international itineraries. Each hour is planned from the travel to production schedules, installation schedules and press and event schedules.
Announcement campaign at the Hôtel de Ville metro station in Paris for the Portrait(s) Festival XIV in Vichy, as well as an announcement poster for the exhibition Fragile Beauty at Jeu de Paume (also featuring David's work) on the same day.
On my first trip to Vichy, Fany and Pascal had shown me several places we could stay. There was a modern spa hotel. There were Airbnbs.
And then there was the Aletti Palace Hotel.
I knew immediately that David would love the Aletti.
As I arrived to Vichy a few days before the team arrived the city happened to be having this Napoleonic celebration. There were people everywhere dressed in these elaborate 19th-century costumes.
Women were walking around in huge hoop skirts with parasols. Men were wearing military uniforms and suits with tails. It was like stepping back in time...
It was basically like cosplay, except the entire town was doing it.
The mayor, Frédéric Aguilera, has done a beautiful job preserving the town and its parks and gardens.
The Aletti Palace Hotel
France was going through a terrible heat wave, and there were transportation problems. We were already worried about whether people were going to be able to get down from Paris for the opening.
The Aletti is a storied, grand relic from the past.
It is magnificent in every sense of the word...
It is not for the prissy or picky tourist who wants 24-hour room service, Egyptian-thread-count sheets, keyless entry, an iPad in the room and perfect central air.
There are other hotels for that.
The Aletti feels like the past and it is the past. It is an opportunity to step back in time to a more glamorous and thoughtful time.
Snapshots from around the glamorous Aletti Palace Hotel.
So many beautiful old hotels have been bought by large international hotel companies and renovated until eventually you don’t know whether you’re in Paris, Miami, New York or Germany.
At the Aletti, you know you’re in Vichy.
When you walk in, there is even this little cabinet with old toiletries and lingerie in it. It is this funny little reminder of the glamour and humor from another time. This place has personality.
There is a huge reception desk in the middle of the entrance.
On one side, there was a ballroom under restoration because they had had a water leak - which was quickly repaired, and I only mention it because we were very honored that Ms. Danon, the owner asked for our suggestion on a new paint color following repair. On the other side was another ballroom and the breakfast room.
And it was incredibly hot.
Scenes from our travel from Paris to Vichy with the team and our happy arrival in Vichy, with Jeremy, John, David, me, Luca and Kumi.
France was going through a terrible heat wave, and there were transportation problems. We were already worried about whether people were going to be able to get down from Paris for the opening. Trains were cancelled for the week after we arrived due to risk of fire on the tracks from extreme heat.
Our rooms were enormous. Huge windows, balconies, these vast carpeted floors, a bed and fairly simple furniture.
Because of the heat, the hotel gave us fans.
I kept thinking the rooms must have been something like in a presidential suite on a cross-atlantic of the Queen Mary - but larger...
The room itself was the luxury.
We also got to know the owners of the hotel, Françoise Danon and Hassan Boube.
We met them in the bar.
The famous Aletti Palace hotel bar.
The bar was absolutely beautiful. Apparently films have been shot there. The bartender is famous in the area. He had this huge smile and was always suggesting another drink. My colleague Kumi and I had to decline, as we were working through the day - but we were happy to be there.
It was very, very glamorous.
Outside the bar was a patio surrounded by begonias. That basically became the office for Kumi and me. We would sit there with our computers working on everything for the exhibition and also doing our regular Studio work.
Right next to us was the pool. The water was freezing, which was amazing because it was so hot.
David loves to swim, so he spent a lot of his free time in the pool.
Kumi and I would be sitting there working, David would be swimming, preparing for his next shoot and attending interviews, people would be coming and going, and meanwhile a few minutes away we were installing this exhibition that we had been planning for a year. It is a wonder.
The Installation
Over the next several days, we worked to get the exhibition together.
There were actually very few changes once we were in the space.
The curation worked. The lighting worked. The wall colors worked.
Visiting the exhibition space as the final touches are added before the opening.
There were also these incredible historic frescoes on the walls opposite each other, and two of the works selected to live in front of these two frescoes created a wonderul dialogue.
In the evening we would walk around town, through the dancing water fountain in front of the opera house and enjoy the summer air. We had dinner one night at the casino with Françoise and Hassan. On other nights we sat in moody old French bistros. We walked around the town and through the parks. And our friends started arriving for the opening.
Opening Night
I noticed that people seemed to stay in front of the photographs longer than what I usually observe. Maybe 10 or 20 seconds longer. I believe the French are educated to really appreciate art and look deeply into what they see...
Fany Dupechez giving opening remarks, Fany and Pascal, the festival directors pose
in front of the exhibition title wall and colophon.
On the opening day, June 21st, the heat wave was still creating travel problems, but people made it.
Laurent Philippon came from Paris.
Luca Pizzaroni came from Italy and had this unbelievable trip with several trains and missed connections, but he made it.
Vichy Mayor Frédéric Aguilera giving opening remarks, David LaChapelle: Electric Paradise welcomes the public to enter on opening day of the Portrait(s) XIV Festival, June 21, 2026.
The opening started around six.
It was cinematic.
There were hundreds of people outside this enormous old thermal spa building. A lot of them were local people.
Mayor Frédéric Aguilera gave a welcome speech outside and remarked on how important it is to bring world class art to Vichy as it continues to write it's own story.
Then they opened the doors and everybody went inside.
Visitors tour the exhibition on opening day, David meeting with Jean-Jacques Farré and his colleague, as the presented him with their photographic magazine LIKE la revue for which they interviewed him.
I remember standing back and watching people experience the exhibition.
I noticed that people seemed to stay in front of the photographs longer than what I usually observe. Maybe 10 or 20 seconds longer. I believe the French are educated to really appreciate art and look deeply into what they see...
It is always fascinating to see what people are drawn to and how they connect to the vast collection of works in the show.
As a nice surprise. Coralie Claeysen-Gleyzon, who curated David’s exhibition earlier that year at the Orlando Museum of Art, came with her lovely son and daughter.
We headed to the opening dinner.
The Reception
And finally the exhibition was open.
The opening dinner was nearby at Le Samoa. It was attended by mayor's office, the Festival team and many lovely guests..
After dinner, Martin Kubrich arranged a late-night visit to the Opera House for the organizers, sponsors and our friends.
I already knew what was coming because I had been there the year before. I was thrilled to see how everyon would react.
We walked into the opera stage from backstage, in complete darkness.
Then, on the count of three, the mayor turned on the lights.
The whole theater appeared.
That oxidized greenish gold.
It was like this huge glowing jewel.
And definitely haunted.
We stayed there for a while and then eventually went back to the Aletti wind down.
The Aletti After the Opening
We stayed up late talking.
It reminded me of what happens after the opening night of a theater show, or maybe even closing night. Everybody is exhausted - but also excited. All of this pressure is suddenly gone. Nobody really wants to go to bed.
Celebrating the summer exhibition in Vichy.
But our exhibition wasn’t actually over. It would stay there for the summer, free to the public.
It started with a phone call. Then there were Zoom meetings, measurements, drawings, the model, shipping crates, posters in the Métro.
And finally the exhibition was open.
The Wedding
The next day, we were recovering, and a large wedding party started arriving at the Aletti.
The ballroom that had been under construction because of the water leak had miraculously been restored in time.
I grew up in a hotel, so I understand some of what goes into running a place like that. There is always a leak. Something always needs to be painted. Somebody wants to arrive early. Somebody else wants to leave late. And somehow the ballroom has to be ready tomorrow.
It was also one of the hottest days of the summer.
So this large wedding party was running around the hotel sweating, half-dressed and sometimes barefoot, enjoying a very spirit-filled wedding and we were happy to see them having a good time..
It was great.
We had just finished our big event, and now they were starting theirs.
Leaving Vichy
The hotel took such good care of us and we will always remember this summer in Vichy.
The next day, we had our final breakfast of the stay in the breakfast ballroom.
I went to check out our team, it must have been about 3 rooms for 6 nights and an additional 2 rooms for 2 or 3 nights, plus many wonderful moments and treats at the hotel bar.... I could not believe my eyes. The bill was less than 2500 uSD for the entire stay. I think the hotel must have made many things for us complimentary, because this was beyond generous. I felt guilty for the very humble charge.
The hotel took such good care of us and we will always remember this summer in Vichy.
As our car arrived to take us back to Paris we had the opportunity to say goodbye to our new friends.
Kumi, Francoise, Fany, Pascal and me upon our departure;
David, Kumi and I during a stop at a very cool gas station on the way to Paris!
We got to have a nice goodbye at Charles DeGaulle in Paris, as David and John headed to Scotland, Kumi headed to New York, Luca to Rome and me to Miami.
Some parting travel views of Vichy and the region.
Looking back at these extraoridanary projects that we get to be part of...you spend all this time on Zoom. You measure everything. You make drawings. You build a lmodel. You move tiny photographs around little walls. You make shipping lists. You book flights. You book trains. You choose the hotel. You worry about the heat. You worry about whether everybody is going to make it.
Then you open the doors.
People come in.
And then you leave.
But the art stays for the summer and hopefully, viewers carry it with them in their hearts long after.
We are incredibly grateful to Fany Dupechez, Pascal Michaut, Karim Boulhaya and Mayor Frédéric Aguilera; Vichy Culture, Portrait(s) and the City of Vichy; Françoise Danon and Hassan Boube and everyone at the Aletti Palace Hotel including Natalie; Laurent, Luca, Coralie and all of our friends who made the trip; and especially the people of Vichy who welcomed us.
We went there hoping to bring something special.
And we got so much back.
You can learn more about the Portrait(s) Festival the dedicated exhibition page.
David LaChapelle: Electric Paradise is on view until October 04, 2026.
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